Justin Trudeau photo selection for Trudeau Foundation story was appropriate

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent assertion that he has no involvement with the foundation that bears his family’s name and is embroiled in controversy, elicited interesting letters from Star readers.

One letter writer clearly agreed with the PM’s position and took strong exception to the fact the Star ran Justin Trudeau’s picture above an April 12 story about the storm swirling around the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation — a scholarship charity created in the name of the PM’s late father, our former prime minister.

“By no means do I think (Justin Trudeau) is infallible, however in this instance he is not the centre or the target of this story. His image as the lead to the article should be removed immediately,” reader Marc told my office.

The Star isn’t doing that.

Martin, another reader, also called for the removal of the photo and that the Star apologize, but for different reasons that I will get into shortly.

National news coverage pertaining to the Trudeau Foundation, which funds the research of over 100 scholars per year, has been extensive in the Star and other media lately.

A quick sum up: the stories have centred around a $140,000 donation to the non-profit, money that originated from a source with a “potential connection” to the Chinese government. Justin Trudeau has said as far as the foundation, which received a $125-million federal endowment when it launched in 2002, is concerned, “for the past decade, I myself have not had any direct or indirect involvement with the foundation and the decisions that it makes.”

The donation is germane these days given news reports of Chinese government interference in Canadian politics and elections. There are ongoing probes into how this interference has impacted our institutions and now the foundation.

Meanwhile, directors on the board of the Trudeau foundation agreed unanimously to launch an investigation, but then they resigned en masse. They cited a “politicized climate” that has led to the crippling of the foundation’s ability to do its work.

So, as news stories go, the foundation has many rather intriguing elements. Though our PM says he’s not involved with the foundation, the story is very relevant for the reasons I’ve outlined above, plus the obvious: the foundation bears his family name.

Which gets us back to the letters I received.

Marc, whom I referred to earlier, commented on the April 12 Star article headlined in part: What’s going on with the Trudeau Foundation? It was written by Alex Ballingall, a reporter in the Star’s Ottawa bureau.

A Canadian Press photo for the in-depth piece, shows Justin Trudeau speaking at the Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre, an assisted living home in Winnipeg. He was speaking during a Passover service there and Hebrew lettering is clearly visible behind him.

As the story points out, Trudeau was asked by reporters while in Winnipeg about the foundation controversy, and he reiterated his “no involvement” comment.

The photo is what we describe in the business as “fresh art” — an up-to-date news photograph taken in an area where the subject of a story, especially a politician, is speaking — in this case Trudeau during his Winnipeg stop.

So, the picture is fair game.

But in demanding the Star take down the photo, Marc said that though he found the article “thorough and a well-balanced” he was “greatly concerned” with the selection of Justin Trudeau as the lead image for the story.

“Although quoted in the article, the Prime Minister is not currently associated with the organization featured in the article (the foundation) and this misrepresents his role, or lack thereof, in the controversy associated with the foundation.

“Although at first it seems minor, having reseen the article and image on Twitter, I know many people will only read the headline and see the picture of the prime minister and assume that he is at the centre of the controversy,” Marc went on to say.

It’s fair to include the prime minister’s photo because he was asked by reporters whether the charity should change its name or cut ties with the family. I pointed out that the donation causing the controversy was made while the prime minister was in power.

The reader Martin went further, expressing concerns that we shouldn’t have run a photo of the PM in a place with a Jewish backdrop for such a highly sensitive story, because the photo implied some news connection to the community.

“When I got to the end of the article I found that my fears were unfounded because there is nothing in the article that even remotely refers to Jews or the Jewish community. But I wonder how many of your readers actually read the article to the end,” Martin said.

“I suspect that most did not, but understandably assumed that the report uncovered some nefarious activities” involving Jewish people, Martin went on to say.

This is unfortunate. As a member of a community that has been targeted, I could sympathize somewhat with Martin’s angst, especially in these troubling times, where bias and vitriol against visible groups seems to be at an all-time high.

But in no way was the photo used to infer what Martin suggested.

As public editor, I explained the “fresh art” concept to Martin and how the photo was reasonable, accurate and appropriate to use.

I’m hopeful my explanation helps readers better understand our news decisions, as we follow the compelling twists and turns of the Trudeau Foundation story and the broader issue of foreign interference.

Donovan Vincent is the Star’s Public Editor. Email at publiced@thestar.ca @donovanvincent